Blog

So, how exactly did my art end up at a film festival in NYC??? You just never know where your art will end up if you are open to new and different opportunities. Mine started way back in 2007 when I first met Trevor and Brittany, a wonderful couple who have become dear friends, on a mission trip to El Salvador with the non profit Airline Ambassadors. We were all airline employees at the time (they still are, Trevor as a pilot for American and Brittany as a flight attendant for Southwest) and visiting orphanages during Christmas time. I was painting murals with the kids and Trevor was distributing soccer balls and playing the "beautiful game" with them. We have stayed in touch ever since and both have started our own non profit projects. Mine is Moni's Kids, as some of you may already know (more updates on that in a future post) and theirs is Little Feet, a one-for-one company (think TOMS shoes) through which he donates one soccer ball for each one bought to needy children worldwide. Purchasing soccer uniforms through Little Feet also allows them to build soccer fields in communities and distribute uniforms to start soccer leagues. Trevor and Brittany started Little Feet after he kept seeing kids in poverty stricken areas using things like balled up plastic bags and t-shirts as balls and playing on dirt fields or trash filled alleys. They are now on a mission to spread peace and hope through soccer. Check out their facebook page.

But flying full time, starting Little Feet and now raising two kids was not enough for them. They also love art and artists and have started another business combining it all: Futbol Artist Network. It features art inspired by soccer and is a platform for artists who love both! I have to admit that I'm not actually a big soccer fan (I know, it's almost sacrilege as a German!), but when Trevor asked me to paint some of the kids who have received their Little Feet balls and showcase them on the Futbol Artist Network website I immediately said yes! Part of the proceeds help to support the programs of Little Feet. You can purchase the original painting or prints in several sizes on their site or mine.

So, what does this have to do with a film festival in NYC? Well, Futbol Artist Network was invited to have a showing of their work at the Kicking and Screening Soccer Film Festival at the Tribeca Cinemas this week (who even knew there was such a thing??) and Trevor asked me to participate. So, there is my pastel portrait of a young Kenyan boy smiling broadly after receiving a Little Feet soccer ball next to all the cool graphic paintings depicting soccer legends! I could not have foreseen this venue but am always open to new ideas to show my work and help children in the process. 

If you are an artist, check out their facebook page for new calls to artists. You never know where it may lead! 

The winner of my recent contest to win a set of 6 greeting cards featuring images of my artwork of THEIR choice is...drum roll, please...

Carolyn Hancock!

A couple of weeks ago I had asked people to sign up for my newsletter, blog or to "like" my studio page on FB in order to be entered into the random drawing, and Carolyn had done all so she was entered mutliple times and it paid off for her. I appreciate all of the new fans and thank you for taking the time to participate. I hope you enjoy reading my posts and newsletter anyway and if there is anything you find useful in it, please share it with others. As always I welcome comments, questions and feedback any time!

I'm off to the International Association of Pastel Societies bi-annual convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico, tomorrow. It's my first time and I'm so excited! I have two paintings on display, will receive my Master Circle status, am signed up for demos by Margaret Dyer and William Schneider and am looking forward to meeting up with old friends and so many of the pastel artists I have admired from afar. Not to mention the candy shop that is the expo...Rich may have to hide the credit cards:)

So, again, Carolyn, congratulations and I'll be in touch to get your preference for the images you'd like on your set of cards!

Thank you, All!

If you'd like to be entered into a drawing to receive a FREE set of 6 greeting cards featuring images of my paintings (on white photocards with deckled edge and envelope), a $30 value, all you have to do is "like" my studio page on Facebook, sign up for my newsletter or blog (I will NOT EVER share your email address with anyone else nor will I flood your inbox)! If you do all three you will be entered three times! The best part: YOU get to choose the images on the cards from my online portfolio (6 of the same, or 6 different ones)!! I will contact the winner after June 1st and get your choices. But don't delay, the contest ends May 31st at midnight:) Feel free to share this on Facebook! Thank you so much for helping me increase  my audience! 

To like my studio Facebook page, click on the "like" button right below the cover photo: www.facebook.com/daggiwallacestudio

To receive my newsletter (about 5-10 issues a year), enter your email address here: http://daggistudio.com/email-newsletter

To subscribe to my blog: http://daggistudio.com/blog, enter info on the left under "follow this blog".

I'm learning so much from this 30 Marketing Ideas in 30 Days by Leslie Saeta! Today's task was to create a collage of our images. I have always loved seeing these by other artists but not being the most computer savvy those cool poster type designs scared the heck out of me  (I have been known to burst into tears after hours of working on my laptop only to lose it all with a click of the wrong button, have used more curse words any mother ever should within earshot of her children, and sent pleading prayers up into the heavens just to get things uploaded and printed the way I imagine them!). Thank you, Leslie, for pointing me in the direction of ipiccy.com!! Even though this challenge took more than the 30 minutes she promised and was accompanied by my usual re-starts, it WAS pretty easy to do and I'm very happy with the results. I now have an image to upload to vistaprint.com and can print this collage onto posters to hang in my studio windows, make notebooks or any of the other million things you can use for marketing. I will also make collages of other series of paintings, such as my surfers, which I will be exhibiting in a solo show soon. I hope this inspires some of you to give it a shot, too!

As part of today's task of Leslie Saeta's 30 Marketing Ideas in 30 Days challenge, I am posting an earlier painting (much better to use the word "earlier" than "older" by the way) of a scene in New Mexico. I loved the light and shadow in this and the blue sky reflected in the puddles among the olive colored wet dirt patches. I had treated myself to a trip to Taos, NM, for my 40th birthday many moons ago. I had never been there but it had been on my bucket list because of the art scene there, the history, the magical light everyone always talks about and the Native American culture. My birthday is the day before New Year's Eve, so we were there for the Turtle Dance performed at the Taos Pueblo at sunrise on New Year's Day. I loved everything about Taos and can't wait to go back!

This painting is on sale for $285, plus tax and shipping, and includes a white mat and light natural wood frame. To purchase it, please click here.

I didn't realize that so much time has passed since my last blog post! So much for making it a weekly thing...hhhmmm. Well, I could use the holidays as an excuse, so I will:), but now it's the end of January! I said I'd share my struggles as a full time artist with you, so this balancing act of painting and the business side of art (which includes blogging, sending out my newsletter which I finally did, entering shows, marketing, research, bookkeeping) continues to be a big challenge for me.

I have also joined the Board fo Directors of the Studio Channels Islands Art Center where my studio is located, which takes up some time but is worth it. I wanted to get involved to learn all I could about our art organization and to help make it grow. To that end, I also started posting regular Facebook posts called "Live from the Studios" featuring one artist each weekday creating their work. Yes, it requires some time, but I have also very much enjoyed getting to know each of our many artists and learn about their work. I want to give my friends and fans great art to view and if that happens to be by someone other than me, that's okay. I stopped viewing other artists as competition a long time ago, because it can make one crazy and only diminishes our self esteem even more. I do my best to think of it as a comraderie and that there is enough room in the world for all of our art. The more people start seeing art and realizing how much value it adds to their environment, the more they lose their intimidation by it and understand that yes, even a person with an average income can afford to buy original art, the better it is for all of us in the creative fields. I also believe in the whole karma thing "What goes around, comes around", "What you put out, you will get in return", so I'd rather help promote my fellow artists than view them as the competition. I'd honestly love it if one of my peeps bought one of their creations! Maybe one of their collectors will purchase one of mine in the future, who knows, and if they don't that's ok, too.

On the creating side, it's been a bit of a struggle lately. I was busy for quite a while with a large traditional commissioned portrait of three half figures. I find these difficult because I don't feel as free to put more emphasis on one person over the next, like I would do in my personal work to create a dynamic composition. I'd bring out one person as a focal point and push the others back more, but I just can't do that when it comes to three siblings! Wouldn't want to create any kind of sibling rivalry and want to keep my client (their father) happy. Well, he is very happy with the piece and I'm now working on some new personal pieces before starting the next commission.

And that's where I really started to struggle. One can get paralyzed facing a new sheet of paper or canvas...the possibilities are so endless. I could work on some more Small Treasures, maybe some sea- and landscapes from my recent trip up the coast through Big Sur, or I could add to my series on teen issues. I worked my way through hundreds of reference photos, printed out a bunch, painted a few small ones only to become more and more unsatisfied. This in turn affected my confidence even more and I started to seriously doubt myself. Here I was making this major life transition from a full time job with benefits to being a full time artist with studio rent to pay and I couldn't come up with anything exciting? I could feel panic rising in me, and it took all I had to just KEEP THE FAITH. I have been through these valleys before and I KNOW there is always a mountaintop coming up in the near future.

Julia Cameron, the author of the classic "The Artist's Way" had this to say: "CHOP is necessary. Chop means you're growing, chop is a period of creative vulnerability in which your style shifts, becomes malleable and porous...in other words: open to inspiration!"

I have this quote written in my sketchbook and refer to it whenever I feel unsure of where I'm going. 

So, the only thing to do, no matter how hard, is to keep working, keep showing up whether we feel like it or not, whether we have an idea for the next piece or not. In the doing of it, those automatic actions of taking out the sketchpad and pencil, stretching that canvas, mixing up some paint, applying a few strokes on the paper...it starts to flow. And even if the flow creates nothing we are happy with, keep going, take out that next sheet of paper and start anew. I like to repeat this mantra to myself whenever I am attempting something new and scary: "Just do it, don't judge it". I believe this is also Julia Cameron's advice. The judging is reserved for later, if you do it while in the process of creating it will paralyze you with fear and doubt.

After another small piece failed to meet my standards I decided to do some life drawing and asked my daughter Sam to come model for me. I figured I can always hone my skills that way and it doesn't have to end up for sale. Well, she was tired and kept yawning and fidgeting, so after an hour I gave up. It was very hard to get into the zone this way. I don't blame her, it was the end of the day for her and sitting as a model is not easy. But even in that one hour, I learned a lot, was reminded to look for those lost edges, where the subject blurs into the background, to check angles, etc. It was NOT wasted time even though it did not produce a finished drawing.

The next day, I visited with other artists and shared my frustrations. I got advice about surfaces and framing (my materials and out of pocket costs having been part of my recent misgivings) and went back to work with renewd energy. I love being at an art center with so many other artists for this reason alone!

And all of a sudden I had a vision of what I wanted to do next which is to produce some small paintings along the lines of my Small Treasures series, meaning they are very budget friendly because they are so small and I'm selling them unframed, but still feature people. I saw the first piece clearly in my mind, and you can see here. I wanted to explore leaving a large area of the painting light, to achieve a more graphic look, and I quite like it. The title Angel in Waiting presented itself before I even started. It's a reference to the wing shape of the steam in the mirror, but also refers to the girl herself. So often young women do not see the angels they truly are, just waiting to be let out of hiding. 

Once I post this, I'm off to the studio. There are two meetings to attend and a new client to photograph, but I already have the next painting started and am excited to get to it. I'm climbing my way out of the valley!

Sometimes you have to think beyond the obvious and try something new, especially when it comes to getting your art out into the world. Exposure is everything and you never know where it may lead one day. All you can do as an artist, is keep creating the work and keep putting it out there for as many people to see it as possible. That in itself takes some people a long time to get comfortable with, I know it did me.

But if you're past the point of hiding in your studio, stashing your work in a closet and have built up a thick skin to handle rejection, start thinking of every and all opportunities where you can exhibit your paintings. While it's great to be represented by the top gallery of your choice, that is now even harder to achieve than ever as galleries are struggling like everyone else in this economy. And stay away from opportunities that cost YOU a bunch of money upfront! No serious collectors respect vanity galleries (different from co-ops) and it will hurt your career in the long run.

Instead, start brainstorming! And that means you write down EVERYTHING that comes to mind, no censoring at all, no matter how silly it may seem. You will weed out the bad ideas later. Think of who your market is and where to find those clients. 

Here are just some ideas:

• Negotiate with owners of empty stores to display art in their windows 
• Put on an exhibit at your local animal shelter or pet store (you can earmark part of the proceeds to the shelter)
• Libraries
• Coffeeshops and restaurants (Be careful, though. Ask them to display a bio and price list and make your contact info readily available to their customers. Too many of these places use art to get free decoration and do nothing to promote it. One way to get them onboard is to offer a small commission to the wait staff if a client referral results in a sale)
• Doctor's offices and hospitals
• Your child's dance academy or karate school
• Your accountant's office and other local businesses (many appreciate the rotating exhibits and often will let you host a reception)
• local TV stations

 I recently had the good fortune to be referred to the local government TV station in my new town. They support the artists at my art center by displaying their work on the set where they film their interviews (see picture). I jumped on the chance to make this local connection without any expectations. They came and chose the pieces and returned them within a day. It cost me nothing, some people saw my work who may not otherwise ever see it and that's it. Could something more come out of it? You never know. It could be that someone sees the work and contacts me months from now. It has happened before and I've learned to just do my part of showing up at the easel and being creative not only with my pastels by also with the venues where I show them. If you do that I promise you good things will come your way, new opportunities will present themselves. Be discriminating but not snobbish in accepting them. Let me know what you come up with and the results!

Most artists, especially the introverted ones, hate marketing their work, including me. We'd rather just hang out in our quiet corner of the world and create our art. It is hard enough to actually bring those creations out of the studio and into the world by showing them to the public at galleries, art competitions, art fairs or any other venue. It can feel like standing naked on a stage under floodlights in front of thousands having to give a public speech with no notes (trying to conjure up the most uncomfortable scenario imaginable here) and then asking for feedback, critiques, opinions. But we also have to add the even more uncomfortable activity of actually seeking out these venues in the first place! That is if we would like to make a living being artists and most of us do so we can spend our hours on what we love doing, creating, not having to work a day job to pay the bills. I think it's just about every artist's dream to be paid for what we do, so that means we have to master the art of marketing as well. To me, this feels overwhelming at times. The good news is there are many ways artists can market themselves nowadays, but the bad news is it can take a lot of time away from the studio precisely because there are so many avenues to pursue! 

Yesterday, I attendend a panel discussion about art marketing in Pasadena hosted by the California Art Club, one of the oldest art organizations in the country. The speakers were William Bush, publisher of Artweek LA magazine, Beverly Chang, Director of Public Relations at the BRC Group and marketing consultant to several art organizations and Rebecca Kimmel, owner of the Korpus School of Art and Senior Lecturer of Otis School of Art and Design. 

I thought it would be helpful if I share some of their tips with you, in no particular order, with some of my own thrown in:

-First and foremost is FOCUS. Create the best work you can, always strive to learn and improve so your art can be of the highest quality possible, but also start thinking about what your art is all about. Focus on who you are as an artist and what you want to communicate through your work. It's ok to want to try a new media, style or subject matter, but don't necessarily include it on your website or gallery submission. Like it or not, you have to think of branding, even if that sounds too "commercial" to you. You want to become the "go to" artist when a certain subject or style comes up. Become the expert in your field.

If you're not sure what "your thing" is, take a look at your body of work (if you have a website or board on Pinterest it's easy to see all of your work in one place as thumbnails and you will quickly see a pattern!). What is it that sticks out to you, to others? What have others said about your work? Do the colors pop? Is there a romantic mood to your paintings? Do you make people smile with your images of children playing or do you make them wish they could travel to the place you just captured on canvas? Try to narrow it down as much as possible. In my own case, I realized that my paintings, especially my portraits resulted in very strong emotional responses from my viewers. Repeated comments I would hear were that they could see the emotions of the person depicted, could hear their laughter, feel their joy or pain. The people looking AT my paintings were connecting with the people IN my paintings, which is something I was trying to achieve but had not been able to put into words. I became clearer about what I saw as the purpose of my creating in the first place and am now able to more clearly focus on that. It has made decisions easier when it comes to chosing what to paint next.

If you do paint several different subject matter, at least be sure to have a commonality between them. This can be the same style, but different media, same subjects but different treatment, or even the same feelings your work evokes (moody, joyful, bright, melancholic).

- Elevator Speech: Once you have narrowed the focus of your work, you can write and talk about it more easily. Write about your work in private first, free-flow style, then edit, edit and edit some more, narrowing it down to the essentials. There are many resources available on writing an artist statement, or you can hire an art writer to help you, so there is no excuse. But you need to be able to write and talk about your work at a moment's notice. As I learned yesterday, an art club may ask you to give a little talk at the next show or a blogger may want to interview you. Be ready! Work hard and be prepared when opportunities present themselves, THAT is the definition of luck!

- Be consistent in all of your communication regarding your art. Relay the same message on your website, newsletter, speeches and presentations. Remember your focus and stick with it in all of your communication.

- Get coverage through bloggers: look for blogs on art and topics related to your subject matter (if you paint florals look for gardening blogs, wildlife=animal rights and rescue blogs, landscapes=conservation and hiking blogs, if your art deals with social issues find blogs about those issues. Think outside of the box. Be creative about where you might find your audience, aka your new collectors!) 

Don't only "like" those blog posts but comment on them, join the conversation, wait for appropriate times to introduce your art to the blog.

You want to create conversations about your art and have others relate to it.

Suggest an article to bloggers, share each other's posts on your blogs. 

Keep in mind if you submit a photo for online purpose they need to be about 600 pixels!

- Get to know the art writers in your area, find ones whose writing style and opinions you like and respect, follow their posts, start and nurture relationships with them (easy to do on facebook or twitter).

- Learn how to write and send press releases! You want to make it as easy as possible for the writer to share your information. They are bombarded with submissions from artists, so do as much of the work for them as you can. That means writing all pertinent info about an upcoming event (the what, who, where, when, why) in the body of the email. It makes it easy for them to copy and paste as needed. You can always attach an image of the postcard invitation or a link if you like, but do take the time to include those details in the email body.

- Join art groups on facebook and LinkedIn and add something of value to the conversations, don't just post about your achievements, latest works and shows. What can you offer that might be helpful to someone else? A tip about technique or process? A call for art you just heard about? An essay or review about your last museum visit?

- an IPad is one of the best investment for an artist (it will be on my Christmas wish list this year for sure, until then I will be sure to upload my images onto my IPhone). You are ready to show your "portfolio" anytime to anyone anywhere!

- Create more traffic to your website by offering free content. This could be a free online workshop, mentoring offer, link to a demo on youtube, free cards with your iamges to anyone signing up for your newsletter, a raffle of a print to new followers of your blog, etc.

Of course, you post all of this on facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and whatever other social media you use.

-Events: consider charging a small fee for an event (such as an Open Studio or Home Art Show) but waiving that fee for anyone who shares the event on their social media.

To sum it all up: Marketing and selling art is all about offering something of value to others. It's about starting and nurturing relationships with people. This takes time, but you never know where it might lead in the future. Make those connections, offer something of value to others, be interested IN others and you will become interesting TO others.

The keywords for marketing:

FOCUS
OFFER VALUE
NURTURE RELATIONSHIPS 

I have been absolutely swamped this summer which is why I am so late posting about my upcoming exhibition at Luminarte Design Gallery in Dallas. But here it is October and the reception is tomorrow evening! I did send out email blasts, posted it on Facebook and promoted it in many other ways, but somehow forgot to update the blog.
Oh, well, I hope some of you can make it anyway. I am so grateful to the gallery for not taking a commission from the Moni's Kids paintings, only my other work, so that all of the proceeds from those portraits can go towards the library we started in Haiti this summer.

If you'd like to see a preview of my newest work which will be shown as the second part of this exhibition, you can click here. I was thrilled that the gallery specifically requested work in the Up Close & Personal style, because it allowed me to work up some new images that were not commissioned pieces. I could play with different designs and compositions, adding lettering and text. I definitely plan on creating more paintings in this series. Some of the new work merges the teenage series with the Up Close & Personal series which I think works well.

I welcome your comments and feedback about this new work!

I can't believe it's already the middle of January again! Today my oldest daughter turns 20, which means I have been a mother for 20 years!! Incredible how fast time really does go by.
20 years of immense joy and challenges, love and frustration, worry and pride. Raising children in today's world is very tough. Trying to instill our own values while being bombarded from all sides
by opposing ones feels like swimming against a very strong current at times. Balancing motherhood with following your muse (and in my case also earning a living and supporting my family) has been
tough and full of feelings of guilt at times. However, there is no way I could have waited to dedicate time to art making until the girls were in college. As tough as the balancing act has been for me and for them over the years, it would have been worse if I had to live without painting. I hope they saw that it is absolutely essential to be true to oneself and follow the path you believe was meant for you, while still living up to your responsibilities.

As this new year begins, I am excited to get back to work in the studio. I have several wonderful commissions, including two large ones from a family who traveled a couple of hours just to meet with me and commission me to paint their children. What an honor.

I also still need to finish the last 5 paintings in the first Moni's Kids series. We are deciding on how to use the funds raised and when to travel back to Haiti.
Plans for Moni's Kids include starting the paperwork to become a full fledged 501(c)3 non-profit foundation and getting some help with administrative stuff!

I am looking for someone who has a passion for art, helping others, has experience (or a degree) in marketing/sales/PR. The paintings are done and I hope to paint many more children, but unless I can sell them, the point of actually helping these kids will be lost.
If you know of anyone who would like to help me get Moni's Kids off the ground and make it grow so that we can keep reaching out, connecting people and helping children, please let me know. Finding someone who would be willing to work as a volunteer, at least in the beginning, would be fantastic. Maybe a kind of internship?

I have ideas about sending proposals to children's hospitals, medical offices, businesses, etc. who regulalry buy art for their facilities anyway. Why not decorate their halls with these children's faces and lend a helping hand to them at the same time? It would be a tax deduction and shed a positive light on the business.
I have the ideas, but cannot possibly follow up on all of them myself. I still have a day job, a younger daughter at home and lots of paintings to create!
I am looking for that angel who can help with Moni's Kids. Know any?
Or do you have connections to medical facilities or businesses who have ties to and an interest in Haiti, have supported relief efforts there and would be interested in this new way of supporting children in Haiti (as I said, other countries will be represented in the future)?
Any and all ideas and suggestions are welcome and greatly appreciated!

On other painting goals: I plan to continue entering shows and competitions this year (although they may be fewer in number) and creating paintings that have been floating in the back of my mind for a while.
Lots of goals, plans and ideas.
Now comes the hard part: Doing it all!

A Happy New Year to you all.

May it be filled with love, joy, laughter, creativity and growth.

I finally have a moment to tell you about the event in Miami!

After shipping 25 paintings to the Doubletree Hotel in Biscayne Bay ahead of time (a huge thanks to Fox for storing them in his office and being so helpful throughout the whole process!), Sam and I arrived there on Thursday. This is after my boyfriend/project manager Rich had INSISTED that we be there on Thursday, not Friday, which I thought would be plenty of time. The poor man had put up with quite a bit of complaining from me about being so bossy and setting our itinerary without consulting me first (it's hard to let go of the German control freak in me). Well...there was a reason why he was so insistent, but I wouldn't find out till later.

The hotel and location were gorgeous. The event was held in the Grand Ballroom with a huge patio overlooking Biscayne Bay and out to South Beach along the horizon. Despite being busy doing last minute things for the show, we managed to be tourists as well.

On Friday, I got the biggest surprise of my life: my brother Andreas and his two kids, Lennart and Vivien, arrived all the way from Germany! Rich had planned this for months and had had a very tough time keeping the secret while putting up with my attitude about his conceived bossiness. The man truly deserves a medal! Everybody else around me (including the hotel staff and Nancy Rivard of Airline Ambassadors) knew about the surprise. I can't even describe my feelings when I found out. The fact that my brother and his family would travel so far for such a short time was an incredible show of love and support for me. They had originally planned on spending three and a half days in Miami, which is short enough as it is coming from Europe, but their first flight was cancelled and they ended up with only two and a half days! I have never felt so loved in my life. That the two most important men in my life, my brother and my boyfriend, went to such lengths to support my project, my dream, left me in tears and speechless. My project is named after our late mother, Monika, and I felt that she, too, was present in the ballroom that night with Andy and me.

After breakfast on South Beach and a dip in the ocean for the kids we spent several hours on Saturday hanging the paintings and setting up our display table. The Bon Voyage party for the Cruise 4 Haiti by AAI started at 7pm and even though not as many people attended as we had hoped, we had several sales! All together, seven portraits have been sold (and put on hold), and many good connections were made. And since I didn't mess up too badly during my little speech (will I EVER be comfortable with public speaking??), the evening was a wonderful success.

Sam put together a slideshow with music about our project. You can view it here. 
Be sure to turn up your speakers so you can hear one of my favorite songs that I thought was perfect to accompany the photos. (Update: I could not use the song we had chosen on this site, but you can see our intended version on my facebook page here.)

I received so many comments about the portraits and the idea behind the project came across exactly as intended. I watched so many people read the kids' stories displayed next to their paintings, point to the drawings the kids had created behind their faces and ask me about the children. I wish the kids themselves could have been there to see the reaction of the audience! It was heartwarming and reaffirming.
I have added the children's background stories (as much as I had) to the Moni's Kids page on this site instead of adding more on this blog. You can read them below each child's portrait here.

We ended up packing the paintings back into heir boxes and taking them to a 24hr FedEx, so we could spend the whole next day driving down to the Keys and snorkeling. After months of non-stop work it felt fantastic to do nothing but play! To get to do it with my family from Germany, which was so completely unexpected and almost surreal, was even better.

Monday morning started before dawn with all of us heading to two different airports to fly back to our respective homes. We were all exhausted, but so happy about a successful launch of this project.

Now, back home, I have a few commissions to do for Christmas, then I will finish the last 5 portraits in this series of 30 and continue to find homes for them. I will be talking to the New Life Children's Home soon to determine when I might travel back to Haiti and how we will distribute the funds raised. I will keep you posted!

Below are a few photos from our whirlwind weekend.

The three cousins Vivi, Sam and Lenny having a blast at South Beach

Hanging Wisben's portrait with Andy

The Grand Ballroom at the Doubletree Hotel, more paintings were hung in the bar and foyer area

Andy and Rich

with Nancy Rivard of Airline Ambassadors

with the Consul General of Haiti, Ralph Latortue

Sarah picked out Vanessa's portrait, which her mom, Leslie Sosnowski, bought. I think Sam was hoping to keep it for herself, it was her favorite!

Annette Tillemann-Dick of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice and her son Zeke with their portraits of twins Fabien and Fabienne